By Rufus Baker Santa Monica
Perhaps it is because schools are out of session for the summer that the only voices being heard on the frivolous notion of breaking the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District into one district for each city are those of one very small group.
It is important to make clear that the strong and overwhelming belief throughout both communities is that the Santa Monica-Malibu schools comprise one district, indivisible.
Splitting up our excellent school system into separate districts for Santa Monica and Malibu would be unnecessarily costly, senselessly duplicative and of no real benefit for students.
Historically, Malibu junior and senior high school students attended Santa Monica schools. Our Santa Monica district built the Malibu schools and the overall district shares many services, benefits and employees.
Text and curriculum development, special education, personnel, payroll, benefits, food services, clerical, janitorial, skilled labor, substitute teachers, music, adaptive PE, security, computer services and more are district-wide functions with staff working in both cities. Plus, teachers, aides and administrators routinely work in Santa Monica one year and Malibu the next — a flexibility that also benefits the district’s students.
In the past, Malibu had greater representation on the school board, but that’s a political issue unrelated to the district’s high education standards, which could be jeopardized should a Malibu-Santa Monica split become reality.
As a district substitute teacher for the past seven years, I have regularly taught at every school in both cities. From 1959 to 1970, I was a student in the Santa Monica- Malibu schools.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 27, 2004. Read the original PDF.